| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | Pass | 2♣ | |
| Pass | 2♥ | Pass | 2♠ |
| Pass | 3♠ | Pass | 4♦ |
| Pass | 4♠ | Pass | 5♣ |
| Pass | 5♠ | Pass | 6♠ |
| All Pass |
Eugenio Chiaradia was a six-time winner of the Bermuda Bowl as a member of the Italian team. This deal is from Italy’s first victory in the world championship in 1957. Chiaradia was South.
The auction was natural after the artificial 2♣ opener. Chiaradia obviously expected more from the North hand after the positive 2♥response.
West led the ♥Q, taken by Chiaradia in hand. At trick two, he led the ♠8 (key play) to dummy’s queen, West starting an echo with the ♠4.
A club was led from dummy, Chiaradia playing the king when East ducked (West, apparently fearful of giving away the club position, played the 3). Now the second key play – the ♠9 to dummy’s jack – dropped the 10.
When a second club was played from dummy, East rose with the ace and could have given his partner a ruff, but West followed with the ♣4. East therefore shifted to the ♦J.
That was the break Chiaradia needed. He won the ♦A, played the ♠5 to dummy’s 7, and played a club to the 10 in his hand. On the run of Chiaradia’s black-suit winners, this was the end position:
On the play of the ♠K, West had no good discard and the slam was made. Note that the only way to defeat the contract was for East to return a club for West to ruff. If he played a heart, declarer would simply win in dummy and ruff a heart high, establishing the 9 for the discard of the ♦Q, then follow with the club finesse.
The full deal:
